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At OpenView, we make it pretty clear that our firm’s
aspirations — a collective term that encapsulates our
mission, vision, core values, and purpose — drive everything we
do. In fact, you might say we’re a bit obsessedwiththem.

But there’s a simple reason for that obsession: Our aspirations
keep us focused on the things that matter to us — our
stakeholders and our portfolio — limiting the possibility that
we’ll get distracted by all of the peripheral noise that often
sends companies, or VC firms, swirling down the toilet.

That’s not to say that we’re perfect or that everything we do
turns up roses. In fact, we’ve fallen on our faces once or twice.
And some of our grandiose ideas haven’t exactly turned out the
way we thought they would.

Now, before you start to think that we’re the Pittsburgh Pirates
or Charlotte Bobcats of the venture capital world, let me put
that last statement into context. We embrace failure when it
happens as the result of trying something worthwhile. In other
words, if we feel like the things we’re doing align with our
goals and capabilities, and that they have the potential to make
a massive impact (either for our firm or our portfolio), then
failure is an acceptable outcome.

The bottom line is that whether the things we thought would make
an impact go down in flames or uncover a groundbreaking new idea
that propels us forward, both scenarios ultimately teach us
something that make us better going forward.

Unfortunately, too many businesses don’t see it that way. They
prefer predictability and perfection and status quo. I’ve got bad
news for those businesses: Predictability will do nothing to help
you grow into a great, big business, and perfection doesn’t exist.

So, why are you limiting your business by focusing on either
outcome?

There’s no greater accelerant along the path to genius than a
flaming trail of crap.”

The key is to make sure that everything you do revolves around
the tenants of your aspirations. That way (provided those
activities and initiatives are geared toward making a massive
impact), whether you succeed or fail is somewhat irrelevant.

Ultimately, that means focusing on:

Goal orientation (rather than activity or time orientation)

Exceeding expectations against tough goals

Creating optimal pressure, which leads to feelings of
challenge and pride of achievement

To sum everything I’ve talked about in this post up, I’ll defer to OpenView founder Scott Maxwell,
who’s made it clear in his blog that he thinks businesses should
try to fail more. You might think he’s crazy, but I encourage you
to digest this paragraph before you blindly disagree with that
sentiment:

One of the points that I make over and over and over is that our
culture is stuck with the notion that we must plan and then act
and, if there is a failure, then it was either a failure in
planning or execution. Most situations and all new situations are
unpredictable, so the best approach is to get to a quick
implementation, identify the issues and opportunities, and then
iterate again. Follow this iterative approach a few times, and
you will eventually find almost all the issues and be able to
perform at the best level possible. I call this success, but you
could also call it failing multiple times.”

With that, I think I’ve beaten the false pretense of business
perfection into the ground (see my previous posts on the topic
here, here, and here if you missed them). Hopefully you took
something away from this series. Or, maybe you’re still not
convinced. Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts and
feedback. Do you think perfection is attainable in
business? If so, what have you done to achieve it?